Beyonce 'Frozen' out of top spot on Billboard 200

By Piya Sinha-Roy

2 Min Read

Singer Beyonce arrives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Benefit celebrating the opening of the "Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations" exhibition in New York, May 7, 2012.Lucas Jackson

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Disney princesses ousted Queen Bey from her three-week reign atop the weekly Billboard 200 album chart on Wednesday, as the soundtrack to Disney's latest film "Frozen" knocked Beyonce's self-titled album from the top spot.

The "Frozen" soundtrack sold 165,000 copies in the week ending January 5, and follows on the film's continued box office success since its November release, taking in more than $600 million worldwide. The soundtrack has sold more than 500,000 copies since its release in December.

"Frozen" follows the story of two princess sisters, one of whom later becomes queen of her Nordic kingdom but has special freezing powers, accidentally casting an eternal winter over their realm, which her sister tries to overturn.

R&B star Beyonce's self-titled album, released as a surprise without any fanfare last month, slipped to No. 2 this week with sales of 130,000. The album, which was released exclusively through Apple Inc's iTunes digital store on December 13 and was not available to other retailers until December 21, topped the chart for three consecutive weeks over the U.S. Christmas and New Year's holiday period.

No new albums cracked the top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart this week, following a quiet release week in the first week of the year. Overall album sales totaled 5.4 million over the past week, down 43 percent from the comparable sales week in 2013, Billboard said.